1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein are related to interactive mobile health devices and applications, and more particularly to an interactive dashboard graphical user interface which collects health information for a user, displays a personalized health and wellness program, tracks the user's activity using the mobile health devices and applications and provides notifications, rewards and incentives to the user for participation in the health and wellness program.
2. Related Art
A person's overall health and wellness is the result of a number of different factors. Genetic profiles, medical history, fitness activity and nutrition all affect a person's overall health and wellness. The interrelationships between all of these factors are still not fully understood and are the subject of continuing research. However, even for factors which are individually known to be the cause of disease or promote health and wellness, there is no mechanism for a person or even a healthcare provider to attempt to understand these factors, how they relate to each other and how they may be utilized in optimizing a person's overall health and wellness.
Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death, and has been since 1918. Someone has a heart attack or stroke every 10 seconds, amounting to 2,400,000 deaths in the United States each year. 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. will die from cardiovascular disease, and not surprisingly, 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. are obese. 1 in 3 people also have undiagnosed cardiovascular disease, and cancer and heart disease combine for over half of the deaths in the U.S. each year. The traditional methods of treating cardiovascular disease are not driving down mortality, and studies are beginning to show an “obesity paradox” based on the lack of correlation between adiposity and cardiovascular disease. FIG. 1 is a bar graph illustrating a comparison between body mass index (BMI) and central obesity (via waist-to-hip ratio) in assessing mortality of subjects with coronary artery disease. As shown in FIG. 1, the highest mortality rates are found in individuals with a waist-to-hip ratio of greater than 1, indicating a large amount of visceral fat surrounding the abdominal organs. The mortality rate is even higher amongst the individuals with a waist-to-hip ratio greater than 1 who have an overall low BMI of 18.5-21.9, indicating that an individual with a low BMI and a concentration of fat only around the waist are the most at-risk individuals.
FIG. 2 further illustrates this statistic via the body-shape illustrations of the individuals represented in the bar graph of FIG. 1. As stated below the illustrations, the increased risk of mortality of Person 2 (the individual with a lower BMI but a high waist-to-hip ratio) is statistically significant in comparison with the other individuals, including Person 5, who would be classified as morbidly obese. Additional recent studies have also noted the unusual lack of correlation between BMI and morbidity, once thought to be the primary measurement indicative of health, likelihood of disease and overall morbidity.
Existing methods of promoting weight loss, better diet and regular exercise fail to account for the peculiarities of the obesity paradox, and are therefore failing to address the root cause of morbidity for a large population of individuals which are at risk of cardiovascular disease.